I'm Natalie Delaney-John, and I own Rest in Pieces.
I've been teaching taxidermy for about a year and a half.
In the morning, we are going to do our skinning.
So the first part is that we need to remove our squishy bits.
You haven't been able to learn taxidermy in Australia since the 1970s.
So I stalked a mentor, and I've travelled the world learning my trade.
So we've got Rachael and Chester.
That's Chester.
So with your first incision what you want to do is the top of the shoulder blades.
And we want to come down to about the top of the thighs.
I'm going to cut my ...
knee. Crunch!
And what you'll have is what I like to call the sky diver.
It's a strange art that people frown upon, in a lot of ways.
All my friends tease me, they think I'm unusual because if one of my roosters dies and I think he's beautiful
I put him in the deep freeze
Not many of us around, so that's been really, really pleasurable to actually
communicate with people who don't make you feel like you're a weirdo.
Always try and get your fingers under the skin, 'cause it gives it extra pressure.
So I'm going to get to the bottom of this little
penis
and I'm just going to make a little cut.
And now we keep going
we're going to have to get his balls out.
Yeah not quite as gruesome and grossing out as much as I thought I would, which is good.
Removing brains with a cotton bud is getting...
That's pretty - you don't do that every Sunday.
My journey, it's funny.
It's completely changed, it's done a one eighty.
Initially, I liked people finding it odd that a lipstick-wearing blonde did taxidermy.
Now it's about educating people, and kind of bringing down those walls where people perceive it to be weird.
Actually showcasing that there's real beauty in this art.
I'm Gary Pegg of South Pacific Taxidermy, and we're the largest taxidermy business in Australia.
We've been around for 35 years.
We deal with a lot of hunters, museums, government institutions.
The change in perceptions?
Yeah, it's getting away from that Norman Bates, Psycho sort of
You've got to be some sort of crazy person to be in taxidermy
through to now, where the general public see it as an art.
Keeps the burglars away.
It's grown in the last five or six years
there's a lot interest out there from the younger community which is good.
Where as traditionally it was the boys with their man cave and deer heads
it's the women now with the artwork, basically.
They're working and incorporating taxidermy into their artwork.
I'm Julia Deville, and I'm a jeweller and a taxidermist.
I've been working with these two mediums since about 2001.
This is a very organic process, I just kind of play with things until they look right to me.
I keep all of my finished taxidermy or my works in progress in vacuum-sealed bags because
taxidermy is prone to getting moths and other sort of bugs into it.
Most of my works get sold in glass cases.
So once they have the piece on display it will be protected in glass as well
and then the work is 100% safe.
My work has a very strong animal rights and ethical foundation.
So, all of the animals I work on have died of natural causes.
My work is about celebrating life.
And also showing and highlighting the way that animals are used and abused in our society today.
Where I'll take domesticated animals like cats and dogs, and put them in pots and pans
to kind of highlight why we think it's acceptable to do that to one animal but not to another.
The most difficult aspect is making it look alive and real.
But you'll probably see there's a lot of bad taxidermy out there, where the eyes are slightly crooked
or it just doesn't look right.
I'm Bill Taffaha
and I'm a tanner.
Tanning is my life, I love it.
You know, I can't get enough of it.
If I could put a mattress here I would, I'd sleep here.
But I don't think that's the way to go.
It looks like this one is really pickled all the way through.
Tanning is probably the foundation of taxidermy.
The skin's got to be right, it starts with the skin.
When you see this -
Look at this, it's unbelievable.
There's a bullet hole which I'm going to be able to hide for this guy.
Thank god he hasn't made a mess.
I'm going to shave it down now, really nice and thin so we can show the great detail in the finished product.
You can actually see the blue coming through, and that's actually because of the hair on the other side.
The advantage of having the thin skin, is you're going to be able to set the skin where it has to sit.
And you're not going to get the shrinkage.
So the thinner you go, it's actually going to be the better the finish.
The eye definition.
The nose definition.
The real look: that's what a deer should look like.
Not just skin that's been thrown over a mannequin.
Has no detail.
Facial expression could be
I'm angry.
I'm happy.
I'm alert.
I'm sneaking.
That's what we put back into the animal.
So, can you see right now you've created a body, and a spine and neck?
He feels like he's starting to get some structure again for all the things that you have cut out.
People have been flying in from all across the country to attend this class.
I never expected that was a possibility at all but
I guess when you start something that hasn't been done in a country, you never know how big it can be.
No square mice.
Yep, you need to start again mate.
At this point, we'll probably take the wine away.
It's meticulous, it's beautiful and it's a reverence for the animal, frankly.
Which people don't seem to understand in a lot of ways, you actually - even a little mouse.
But with this little guy we can literally just push our eyeball into the eye cavity.
Alright, go give your guys some eyes.
Man, it's been pretty bloody amazing actually.
To be honest.
Who knew?
So many people like me.
I'm really happy, I think she turned out really beautiful.
It's far more fiddly than I thought it would be.
Oh yeah, I could be happier.
But I think he's very cute.
Looks a little bit mean, I accidentally pulled his tail off in the process of doing him.
But I'm pretty happy with him.
Just got to make sure the cat at home doesn't find him.
They're all so different, aren't they? Isn't that the amazing thing.
This is the thing about taxidermy, we all did the exact same procedure today, and yet
every piece looks so different.
And that's where your artistic ability comes into it, you know?